Additional person to aid county motor vehicle dept.

Since the May 2012 implementation of new motor vehicle software across the state, lines have been long and some tempers have been short.

Jessica Seibel

Since the May 2012 implementation of new motor vehicle software across the state, lines have been long and some tempers have been short.

During Tuesday’s Butler County Commission meeting, Treasurer Ruth Fechter was given permission to hire an additional staff member for the county’s motor vehicle department to help ease the workload of current employees.

“We need more help,” Fechter told the commissioners.

She said the department needed more help prior to the new software’s arrival, and that need has only grown during the summer as issues with the software have increased transaction times.

“It’s just a lot of work,” she said.

The commissioners unanimously voted to support the addition of a staff member in the motor vehicle department. The new staff member’s salary will come from the motor vehicle tax fund, not the county’s general fund.

In other business, the commissioners:

• approved a request by Pam Tennyson for a Homestead Lot Split with APO in order to separate an existing homestead and 10 acres from a parcel containing approximately 157.2 acres.

• approved a request by Lloyd Dunnell for a Homestead Lot Split with APO in order to separate an existing homestead and 5 acres from a parcel containing approximately 160.9 acres.

• approved a request by Jason and Cathi Farthing for a Homestead Lot Split with APO in order to separate an existing homestead and 6.71 acres from a parcel containing approximately 75.2 acres.

• approved a request by Roger and Jennifer Knowles and Randall and Judith McIntosh for a Mortgage Lot Split with APO in order to separate a parcel containing 5 acres from a parcel containing approximately 70.7 acres.

• approved the contract between the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Butler County Health Department for the WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Program in the amount of $12,068.

• approved the contract between the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Butler County Health Department for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children in the amount of $145,979.

• held a work session to discuss the county’s ambulance fleet. The EMS Department has five ambulances in service at any given time, and annually puts around 335,000 miles on its ambulances.

During the discussion, EMS Capt. Larry Charles discussed maintenance issues the department’s newer ambulances are having. Because of emissions regulations, ambulance manufacturers are putting 6.0 liter engines in them, smaller than the 7.3 liter engines previously used. According to Charles, the smaller engines are not as dependable.

The commissioners and EMS staff will continue to discuss maintenance issues as well as the possibility of refurbishing one of the department’s older ambulances that has a 7.3 liter engine with more than 200,000 miles.